This is a regular application of a provisional application, application Ser. No. 60/030,883, filed Oct. 31, 1996. The present invention relates to a digital timer control device with timer-ready module, and more particularly to a timing control switch which may be equipped with every electrical cord, extension cord, plug, outlet, and wall switch to turn on and off of the lights, appliances and the like at specific times set.
In today's society, most people have fixed schedule on weekdays. People get up each morning, fix some breakfast and a hot cup of coffee, and then they go off to work. They do this for every working day. With the technology available today, many things can be automated for the convenience of people. These things include the coffee machine being turned on at 7:00 o'clock in the morning for preparing a nice hot coffee, water sprinkler being turned on at 8:00 o'clock to water the plant and lawn, home alarm system being turned on at 8:05 when all residents are out for school or work. At night time, the front door light prefers to be turned on at sunset. The stereo system and lighting device can even be preset to turn on to prevent the intrusion of theft for that theft might think that there are people in the house. At midnight, all the lights and appliances can be set to turn off to preserve electrical energy and safe money. Besides, people may often forget to turn off the electrical office appliances, such as the copy machine, air conditioner, and audio system, before they leave the office. It is also a major reason of the need of timer control for most office appliances.
Although the conventional timer device comprises built-in and costly electronic parts, it still has the following disadvantages:
First, the conventional timer device needs a human controller present to switch on and off Furthermore, most of the conventional timer devices do not set time exceeding one hour so that when the human operator set the time for doing certain task, he or she will need to come back and reset the timer devices after an hour.
Second, the conventional timer devices are usually installed at the wall socket outlet. However, after a house is decorated with furniture, some of the wall socket outlets might be located behind some heavy furniture or underneath some tables that make the conventional timer devices not easily accessible.
A most essential shortcoming of the conventional timer device is that the conventional timer device works independently, so that each appliance must install a specific timer device. It is very costly that the user must install as many timer devices as the total number of the appliances which need timer control. However, it is rare for the user to operate all the appliances at the same time.